BF2210 - MAKING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS USING
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
Module Number:
BF2210
Module Title:
Making Managerial Decisions Using
Accounting Information
Number of Aston Credits:
20
Total Number of ECTS Credits:
(European Credit Transfer)
10
Staff Members Responsible for the Module:
Professor Alan Lowe
Finance, Accounting & Law Group
ABS Building, Room 422, Extension 3370
Email: lowead@aston.ac.uk
Availability: Students can book an appointment with me at:
https://wass.aston.ac.uk/wass/pages/login.page.php
or please contact the group administrator, Rosaleen Shirley,
ABS404, Extension 3238
Other Staff Contributing to the Module:
Mr Yesh Nama
Finance, Accounting & Law Group
Email namay@aston.ac.uk
Or contact the Finance, Accounting & Law Group Administrator:
Rosaleen Shirley, Room NB404, Extension 3238
Pre-Requisite(s) for the Module:
BF1114 - Introduction to Management Accounting
BF2262 - Management Accounting (Combined Honours)
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BF2210 - MAKING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS USING
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
Module Learning Outcomes:
This module examines the functions and techniques of accounting used by
managers to plan and control their organisations and the behavioural
problems encountered when doing so. Drawing on examples from the private,
public and not-for-profit sectors, the module aims to cover traditional and
innovative approaches to managerial decision making.
Upon successful completion of the module students will be able to:
•
Identify the key relevant information from an organisational setting and
formulate it as a problem.
•
Select appropriate accounting technique(s) to solve the problem.
•
Perform the necessary calculations to apply the technique(s).
•
Analyse the results and communicate their relevance, meaning and
implications to other management team members.
•
Critically evaluate organisational performance at a variety of levels,
using financial and non-financial measures.
•
Understand the relationship between financial and non-financial
information in planning and controlling organisations.
•
Understand the limits to organisational rationality in the planning,
control, performance measurement and organisational decision-making
processes.
Module Content:
Managers use accounting to help them define the problems their
organisations face, to make decisions concerning those problems and to
communicate their decisions to others. Building on the first year introduction
to management accounting (BF1114, or BF2262 for Combined Honours), this
module explores the accounting techniques that are appropriate to different
situations.
The module assumes that management is a team activity. Accountants are
part of the management team whose role it is to supply appropriate
information to enable managers to take decisions and to plan and control their
organisation, whether it is for-profit or not-for-profit, manufacturing or servicebased, private or public sector. This information must be relevant and clearly
communicated to the other members of the team.
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BF2210 - MAKING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS USING
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
Term One (weeks 1-11)
Reading
Week 1 Introduction to management accounting, including cost D 1, 2
classification, cost behaviour and cost concepts.
Week 2 Marginal versus absorption cost profit statements; D 1, 2, 7
over/under absorption of overheads
Week 3 Alternative costing approaches 1: Absorption Costing
Week 4 Alternative
Costing
costing
approaches
2:
D 7, 3
Activity-Based D 10. 3
Week 5 Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis 1: operational gearing; D 8
combined operational and financial gearing
Week 6 Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis 2: multi-product settings
D8
Week 7 Relevant Costs for Decision-making
D9
Week 8 Pricing decisions and profitability analysis
D 11
Week 9 Capital investment decisions 1: Appraisal methods
D 13
Week 10 Capital investment decisions 2: Strategic capital D 14
investment decisions
Week 11 Case Study Assignment
Term Two (weeks 14-23)
Week 14 The budgeting process
D 15
Week 15 Management control systems
D 16
Week 16 Standard costing and variance analysis 1
D 17
Week 17 Standard costing and variance analysis 2
D 18
Week 18 Divisional financial performance measures
D 19
Week 19 Transfer pricing in divisionalized companies
D 20
Week 20 Strategic management of costs
D 21
Week 21 Strategic management accounting
issues (Balanced Scorecard)
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and
emerging D 22
BF2210
BF2210 - MAKING MANAGERIAL DECISIONS USING
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION
Week 22 Management Accounting in its Organizational Context
– role & significance of management accounting
Week 23 Review
All references are to Drury (2008), Management and Cost Accounting (7th
edition), Cengage Learning.
International Dimensions:
The module draws on the UK, US, European and Japanese literature and
cases and draws contrasts from management accounting in these
jurisdictions.
Corporate Connections:
The module draws on research in national and international organizations by
the course controllers.
Links to Research:
The module content draws from the broad research interests of staff
contributing to the module, in addressing the role and importance of
accounting perspectives, techniques and practices in contemporary
organisations. In particular, the module’s focus on decision making using
accounting information links to staff’s research on relationships between
financial and non-financial information in organisations; the boundary of the
organisation and its impacts; performance measurement and management
processes; and the limits and extent of organisational rationality in decisionmaking. In addition, the pedagogical approach of the module draws from
contemporary research in accounting education, in terms of engaging
students with inter-disciplinary perspectives.
Specific research publications by staff engaged in the module cover areas
such as: the changing role of professional accountant; the role of women in
the profession; the impact of accounting and other information technologies
such as enterprise resource planning and Casemix systems; performance
management systems and the management of intellectual capital.
Learning and Teaching Rationale and Methods:
(Including Composition of learning hours)
Lectures are over two terms with 2-hour sessions per week.
Tutorials, comprising of smaller group workshop activities, are spread across
the two terms, totalling 10 hours per student.
A mixture of lectures, exercises, case studies and videos will be used.
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The module includes self-study, individual reading and completion of set
exercises.
Contact and directed learning
Lectures
Tutorials
Directed reading
Examination
40 hours
10 hours
70 hours
2 hours
Indirect learning
Preparation for coursework
Coursework
Exam revision
12 hours
6 hours
60 hours
Total
200 hours
Ethical Approval:
This module does not require any primary research and no ethical approval
will be necessary.
Assessment and Feedback Rationale and Methods:
Assessment is via a 2 hour examination (80%), and group coursework (20%).
The examination has two sections.
Section A consists of multiple choice questions (calculations &
definitional).
Section B has a choice of multi-part questions, including essay-style.
The coursework is a case study of quantitative & qualitative issues. Students
will work in allocated groups of 5 to complete the coursework. Submission of
the group’s coursework is at 12 noon on the Monday of week 15.
The learning, teaching and assessment methods are appropriate to the
learning objectives in that students are expected to focus on and become
proficient with numeric problem solving and providing reasoned explanations
of their solutions.
Students are encouraged to utilise lecturer office hours to obtain more
detailed feedback and advice.
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BF2210